Thursday, July 29, 2010

Currently quite the rage among bunny breeders, but I sneeze just looking at them.

English Lop Bunny

Those floppy ears can be as much as 22 inches long... kinda silly, I think, but breeders entertain themselves this way.

(snark)

Friendly 4-H People

Imagine that! I have to commend this group, unlike those at my local county fair, for actually engaging the public and letting us pet and enjoy the bunnies there on display. Usually the bunnies are left to pant for days in the heat, poked at by passerby, for the sake of a blue show ribbon. Getting the bunnies out of their cages where interested folks could touch them lovingly makes so much more sense, don't you think?

This is a poemabout death,about the heart blanchingin its folds of shadowsbecause it knowssomeday it will bethe fish and the waveand no longer itself--it will be those white wings,flying in and outof the darknessbut not knowing it--this is a poem about lovingthe world and everything in it:the self, the perpetual muscle,the passage in and out, the bristlingswing of the sea.

--The Terns by Mary Oliver from House of Light, 1990

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All Commons, I guess. The Leasts are just too quick to photograph in the air. They're still feeding babies on my favorite sandbar at Horseshoe Cove on Sandy Hook, but today there were far fewer loafing around. Maybe it's just that the tide was higher this time.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Field guides will tell you that terns are closely related to gulls and suggest that, because of similar feeding habits and a shared gregariousness, one might find all members of the Laridae family of birds equally deserving of our admiration.

That might be true for you, but I mostly ignore gulls in favor of terns. Exceptions to that are the handsome summer presence of Laughing Gulls and the dainty Bonaparte's in winter.

In terns I see long fast wings that dance over the sun-dappled sea as it heaves at my feet...

and

the hover-and-plunge feeding technique so suited to little waves and the little fish they pluck from the shadows...

and

the dark eyes and sharp downward-pointed bills, the rising cloud of white birds and the storm of their cries all around me...

A particular joy at this time of the season, late July, when young terns and young osprey at Sandy Hook are learning to fish and to make their way in the world is to place myself among them on the bay near to sunset: behind every shell or pebble or bit of sea-drift is the possibility of a young bird waiting for its next meal delivery; a feathered army of birds marching ahead of me until finally I settle myself amongst them, drenched and soggy in the tide, sand-covered and happy.

: )

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Photos:

#1: Common or Forster's? I'm thinking Common, but would welcome hints!

Thursday, July 08, 2010

As you can see, all this time away from the blog has not improved my bird photography skills one bit.

;-)

I love having kingbirds around; they're among my favorite summer birds. A pair has nested in the neighborhood the past two years and I waste a lot of time just imagining explanations for their funny personality quirks...

I knew their babies had fledged this past weekend based solely on the increased frenzy in their parent's shrill, chattering cries.